SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: The Local Bouquet of Little Compton, Rhode Island, and More on the Seasonal Sourcing Conundrum (Episode 138)

Summary: Today's interview was inspired by an email I recently received from Mary Kate Kinnane and Maureen Azize, partners in The Local Bouquet, based in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Their full-service floral design studio uses locally and domestically grown blooms for every occasion - and it's their dedication to this philosophy that prompted them to reach out to me.  Their letter was just one of several similar "cries for help" from Slow Flowers believers around the country, including Justine Lacy and Jessica Stewart of Foxglove Brooklyn Floral Design Studio, who were my podcast guests two weeks ago. The essential question is this: HOW CAN SMALL FLORAL BUSINESSES MOTIVATE THEIR WHOLESALE SUPPLIERS TO OFFER AMERICAN GROWN FLOWERS FROM LOCAL FARMERS AND OTHER DOMESTIC SOURCES? Here's the note that Mary Kate and Maureen sent: Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Mary Kate and I am co-owner and co-operator of The Local Bouquet, a full service floral design studio in a small town in Rhode Island. My business partner Maureen and I are both 26 years old, newly married and new mothers too. We started our floral company one year ago, providing people with only locally and domestically grown blooms in all of our designs. We have spent the past year educating our customers on why local and U.S. grown in better and why place of origin is important to think about when it comes to the flowers in their lives. No one in our area is providing the public with this type of product and so as a result customers are new to this "field to vase" movement.           We really have learned a lot in the past year from you and all of the educational media you are sharing, so I want to thank you for that. We need your help and expertise though! We realized when we started our business with this unique mission that it would be a challenge to get our hands on local and domestically grown blooms throughout the year, especially in our area of the country. We never imagined just how big that challenge would be though.    In the past five months we have educated ourselves at the flower market, only buying what is U.S. grown, which is a very small list. When we ask our sales reps if they would ever buy more local blooms, they shake their head no and laugh! So lately we have been taking it upon ourselves to talk to the farmers directly.   We have reached out to farmers not just in the New England area but also on the eastern seaboard and the West Coast. We have had disappointingly little luck. All of the farmers outside of our state are not interested in selling to small businesses like ours. They all give us the same speech about how we need to guarantee them big numbers on a weekly basis for them to want to ship all the way to R.I.   So how are we supposed to join this "field to vase" movement if we aren't located where all of these big U.S. flower farms are? Does that mean we are automatically out and we only get 3 good months out of the year to make it as a business? We would like to think not, but lately with all of the defeat it's hard not to.    This is where we need your help. How do we get our hands on more blooms from the U.S.? How do we convince these farmers that even though we are small and just starting out, it is an investment to work with us and one that will grow the "American Flower Farmer" movement. Do you know of any farms that would be willing to sell/ship to us? Do you have any recommendations for us as florists who are trying to support the local and domestic farmers? Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated!    By the way, we thoroughly enjoy your podcasts week-to-week! This might be an interesting topic to discuss; the florist need for more local and domestic blooms and the farmers thoughts to selling and shipping to small time businesses like ours.    Here's a little more about Mary Kate and Maureen, from their web site:   To put it simply,